Sunday, April 21, 2013

The pictures in this post are all from this last week. The turkey has become a regular and the deer come around usually at least once a day. Sorry about the messy layout, I'm still trying to get some things figured out.

We got home from church today to find about an inch of snow piled up...and it continued to snow all day long.

He got caught under a chair (don't worry, I rescued him after taking a picture)

Mikey had a hard time recovering from getting his fingers smashed in a cabinet (his first injury). My father-in-law decided to give him a taste of frosting....

He kept his lips locked tight and the frosting wound up as a mustache instead...he was still distraught

I mentioned in our January through March recap that Mike has a job at Sam's Club. Not the most glamorous job for a recent graduate but there are far worse things out there at the same time. He's been working there since the beginning of February and a lot of supervisors and managers have mentioned how awesome he is (finally people are getting a clue). After taking a test, going through interviews, and having a very anxious wife, we found out on Tuesday that he got a promotion! He went from being a cashier to being a cashier supervisor after working there for only 10 weeks! That's just how awesome my hubby is (or it says a lot about the other people he works with, yikes). Either way, I'm so proud of him.
Why be so excited about a career in a glorified warehouse!? For those that don't know, we're saving up money for grad school. Living with the in-laws is saving us hundreds of dollars a month already and this promotion gets Mike one step closer to being considered for a full-time position (i.e. more money. Go on, call me a gold digger...although at this point I'd be happy with some copper). Hence, the excitement!
This last week the speech-language pathologist (SLP) that I've been working with, gave birth to her precious baby girl! So I've started working a little early. Working full-time, handling 15 credits, and spending as much time as possible with my family means I'll probably get behind on blog posts, but I still love you all!

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Some of you know that I gained quite a bit of weight during pregnancy on top of already unwelcome weight. I've been really fluctuating with regards to dropping weight then gaining it back. Being a part of Hot Mama's Biggest Loser (started by an old roommate of mine) and it has helped me come to grips with how I feel about myself right now. Truth is, I don't like myself. It's not just all about how I look, it's about how I physically and emotionally feel, it's about wanting to be as healthy as I can for my family, so I can be active with them, and so I don't have to keep buying clothes because nothing in my closet fits (as fun as shopping can be)!In an effort to become more accountable I am disclosing my triumphs, fears, goals, and shortcomings with you all! Lucky you! It should be pretty entertaining though. I'll be trying new recipes and exercises that I hope to share with you, along with an honest review, and hopefully someone out there will benefit in some way or another from me sharing my experiences.
Here's recent pictures of me for documentation (just don't look too closely).

Mommy Workouts
I find that between homework, baby, and not wanting to exercise while people are home (I'm fearful that they'll want to stick hot pokers in their eyes after such a sight), and not wanting to rack up miles by driving 40 miles to town and back, I don't have the time to set aside for an official workout. What I wind up doing, that works for me, is little bursts of workout throughout my day. I've found several 10 minute workouts on Pinterest, like this one and this one, that allow me to either do something real quick or stop when I need to and pick up anytime, anywhere I need to.
Some other little things I do:

Calf-raises or squats while blow-drying hair

Figure-eights (hips) while washing my face

Crazy dancing or jumping jacks while feeding Mikey (he gets a kick out of it and usually tries to dance too)

Calf-raises while brushing my teeth

Toss-ups with Mikey (holding him above my head and lowering him till our noses touch, he likes it too, but these only count if I do 50 of 'em)

As you can tell, I'm not terribly creative but this is what I do. As of today I've lost 5 pounds in the last week and a half and while I attribute a lot of it to counting calories using myfitnesspal.com I know that every little bit I can do to get active will help.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Every Monday I sit down and write out all the homework, quizzes, exams, reports, and papers that I have due that week. It's been kind of a juggling act recently with school, work, and the most important thing in my life...family. Life got a little busy when I went back to school last August (which was a choice that felt right despite all , then it got crazy when I went back to work and started my calling at the same time as Relief Society secretary in our Rexburg Married Student Ward. Mikey was only 3 months old when everything hit and I was so afraid of not giving him the attention and love that he needs. I remember finding comfort in one thing: If I put my marriage and family first, everything will be okay.

It has been quite a learning experience but it has been so very worth it. My family is my number one priority and I know that the only reason everything has turned out okay is because Mike and I have placed family first. When it came time for taking the GRE, both of us having finals around the same time, moving, Mike getting in a rollover accident, and being worried about not having the money for school....it has all been okay, because family is first. I have definitely gained a testimony about setting priorities. It takes the guesswork out of a lot of life choices. I've come to the realization that I will probably never have the awesome walk-in-pantry that I have dreamed up on Pinterest, or the latest and greatest when it comes to....anything. But I know that we will be happy, the eternal kind of joy.
I still worry about giving Mikey the love and attention he needs to grow properly in our messed up world, giving my husband quality time, and I still worry about my grades, I still worry about having enough time in the day to get things done, but Heavenly Father has given me this opportunity to trust in Him and the harder things get, the more I am reminded to trust Him.

Now to the point of the post...as of May10th I will officially be free of homework. Because of finances my next semester will be in the fall. Do you know what this means for me!? It means I won't have to cram in homework while Mikey is taking his infamous short naps, it means I get to be with my husband when he's home instead of having him watch the baby while I'm holed up in our room writing papers, it means we get to spend some solid time together as a family. I am over-exuberant about this fact! It makes me want to cry a happy cry just thinking about it! I am so excited, in fact, that I just had to share it with all of you! The next four weeks will be the busiest because of work, finals, projects, etc but it will be SO worth it!

Friday, April 5, 2013

Yay for finding a blog that is easy to use (and free, let's not forget the free part). So here's the update for our family so far in 2013...

January
We came back from Christmas break to our new home in Montana. Mike's parents have been absolutely generous in taking us in. Mid-January my Grandma Wilson (my mom's mom) passed away. I have so many wonderful childhood memories of Grandma. The one thing I remember her telling me, when I was little, was about how important it was to her for all the cousins to know each other and be life-long friends. I hope she knows that she instilled the importance of extended family relationships in all of us.

Little Michael and I were able to fly down (by the grace of my in-laws) and go to the funeral. To sum it up, I definitely would have regretted not going. Mikey did awesome on his first plane ride (despite the negative vibes coming from all the anti-kids-on-planes people).

While we were gone, Mike got a job at Golden Corral (woohoo?) and worked a few days until Sam's Club offered him a better job (cashier) with better pay (and a chance to become full-time), so he took it. Needless to say, he's much happier now.

FebruaryI turned 27! We celebrated Valentine's Day by locking ourselves out of the house, eating frozen pizza and wings, and exchanging cards.melted! Mike's parents got to celebrate by watching little Mikey so we could have some time alone. By now I'm sure you're thinking, "wow, she has amazing in-laws" and you're right, I really have been truly blessed with amazing in-laws. I couldn't have married into a more loving, accepting, accommodating family. It has taken me time to really realize the extent to which they have welcomed me into their family and I'm just so grateful that I have been so blessed.
Mike got me a card from him as well as a card from the little man with his hand traced inside! My heart

Mid February we rearranged the furniture to accommodate our son who likes to roll everywhere. While he was not yet crawling, he truly mastered the manly push-up. People at church would comment on how strong he was.

March
Mike turned 26! (yes, I am older than my husband) Because of his work schedule we had to divide up the celebration over a period of three days (lucky guy). On his actual birthday his mother and I were making his favorite dish (Lemon Chicken) when the power went out for 3 hours! Luckily living in the Philippines has taught me how to cook without power and the lights came back on just before we sat down to eat.

We have a mobile baby! Mid-March little Michael learned how to crawl! It only took him a few days to get it down and now he goes everywhere and gets into everything. His latest favorite is the laundry room (of course the only room without a door) and he has already figured out how to get someone's attention while in the bathroom.

I died my hair (dark) red.

I started working with a speech-language pathologist at a local elementary school. She'll be on maternity leave for the last few weeks of school and I'll be filling in for her. I have really enjoyed it so far and it has convinced me to continue pursuing my degree. I'll be working with her again this month to prepare for the weeks that she'll be gone.

Baby's first Easter. In my family it's kind of a long-held tradition that the "Easter Bunny" hides all the Easter baskets. We hid Mikey's half under a blanket to spark his curiosity. I filled some plastic eggs with Cheerios and he's still discovering Cheerios in some of those eggs. It was fun and cute. We tried getting some family pictures this month but as you can see it was tricky.

Lately...
Spring is finally here in Montana! The weather is in that awkward stage (some days are shorts and t-shirt weather and others are still down right chilly!) so we're anxious for consistently warm (anything above 60) weather.

We've met our pediatrician and she is awesome! She gave us a little tip for raising not-so-picky eaters...variety. If we feed him a variety of foods now (especially from what's on our plate) then his taste buds will get used to different flavors and be more accepting of them as he gets older. Cool huh!